Nike Wmns Air Max 90 'Black Metallic Gold'
Colorway: Black/Metallic Gold/Summit White · Style code: DB9578-001 · Release date: September 23, 2020 · Price: $247 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Wmns Air Max Max 95 Wm (336620-105) · Nike Wmns Air Max Scorpion 'Air Max Day' (FJ6031-910) · Nike Wmns Flyknit Max (620659-014) · Nike Wmns Air Max 1 'Air Max Day - La Ville-Lumière' (DQ9326-100) · Nike Wmns Air Max 1 Premium 'Air Max Day - Wabi-Sabi' (DQ8656-133)
Gold plating on a black base is one of the more direct ways Nike dresses up this silhouette, and the $170 price in September 2020 puts it firmly above the $120 to $130 general-release band. Mesh forms the upper here rather than the usual leather-heavy mix, which changes the texture the gold sits against. The colour split is simple. Black covers almost everything, metallic gold appears on the Swoosh and small hardware, and Summit White handles the midsole so the shoe does not disappear into a single mass.
The sole unit is untouched: visible heel Air, foam midsole, waffle-pattern rubber underneath. Metallic finishes turn up regularly on women's versions of the 90, but they are usually applied as trim rather than as panels, and that restraint is what keeps this pair wearable. On a shoe whose original selling point was showing off engineering rather than decoration, a gold Swoosh reads as an accent, not a redesign.